Book Review: The Prophet ﷺ and his ten companions who were promised paradise.

Title: The Prophet ﷺ and his ten companions who were promised paradise.

Author: Al-Ḥafiz ‘Abdul-Ghani al-Maqdisi (600AH)

Book Category: Short stories of the prophet ﷺ

Expectation:

I expected I was going to read about the relationship of the Prophet ﷺ and his 10 companions in detail. I expected that I would invest in learning more about the companions during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Like the hardships they have been though, the small jokes, some situations that I could learn from, and knowing about each companion unique characteristics in a short but detailed description. When I opened the book, it was completely different from my expectation.

Reality:

The writer of the book gave an entirely different aspect of the prophet Muhammed’s ﷺ life. The book contains chapters about the Prophet’s life in short “original texts”, then followed by explanation from the Quran and/or hadiths and sometimes the author’s opinion about certain situations. The companions were indeed mentioned, but each in 1 or 2 pages.

The review:

At first, when I opened the book, I was introduced to the Prophet’s ﷺ lineage and then his mother. Then continued on with the life of the prophet Muhammed ﷺ. It felt as if I was reading about the Prophet ﷺ in a completely different aspect. I started to read about the life of the Prophet and everything that is related to him. You get a full picture of his life and his relationship with his family, companions, slaves, battles and even his swords. It can strengthen your Iman and knowledge about the prophet. This book gives different information about the Prophet ﷺ compared to the infamous “The Sealed Nectar.” The companions were definitely mentioned, but not to the level that I expected. What I had read is but general information about each of the 10 companions, how many children they had, and what they relationship was to prophet Muhammed ﷺ. Nothing was mentioned about their personalities, achievements, traits or what they did.

Was I disappointed? No, I wasn’t because at the end of the day I have learned something new about the prophet Muhammed ﷺ. I highly recommend it for those who want to know about the prophet, want a light reading, stop any time when ready, because you have a busy life and want to gain valuable knowledge at the same time. All in all, it is a great small book, 187 pages with very short chapters about the prophet Muhammed ﷺ.